Communicating with Doctors via Texting

Do You Text Your Doctor?

Got a burning question for your doctor during non-office hours? Skip the overnight answering service and just text her! Expectant mamas who find themselves wondering why their breasts are leaking in the weeks before delivery or if it is safe to take medication for a headache don't always have to wait for the phones to open at 9 a.m. to get an answer. Many doctors are opening themselves, and their mobile phone lines, up to patients with non-emergency questions. The practice allays patients' fears and reduces the doctors' call volume first thing in the morning. Best of all, worried mamas can find answers without venturing to the often scary Internet and learning worst-case scenarios.

My husband is a doctor (not an OB, though) and tries his hardest to keep his patients away from his personal life. That sounds mean, but there are some sick people out there, and some of his patients are a bit unbalanced. For this reason, our number is unlisted, he returns any patient calls out of his office on his cell phone, and he is really worried about joining Facebook/other social sites for fear his patients would friend him and leave him in an awkward situation. 99% of the time he would be fine with it, but it's that small group of people he doesn't want to provoke. Of course, he handles patient calls and emails at work, but doesn't want to cross the personal line. Plus, he doesn't really text anyhow, so I guess that is a moot point. I do think a field like OB lends itself to more emergent communication, so that probably makes some sense.

Yes. My sons eye surgeon gave us his cell number to text or call him at any time (day or night his words) if my son were to have any complications. Unfortunately we had to use it at 10:30 PM, we were so concerned that his eye was swelling shut, looked infected and running a high fever he had us go into his office immediately (11:00 PM) he checked him out fixed him up and sent us home at 12:00 AM. We offered to take him to IHOP.

5 years

My girlfriend was able to call and email her midwife with questions throughout the pregnancy. If it needed answering pretty quickly she could call and if it was less pressing as suggesting in the story, she could email. I think it's a great service to put the patient at ease and lighten up the pressure on the health care provider.